AlanM6

Thank James

Took my boat out yesterday for the first time this year just for a couple of hours to make sure that everything was running ok after its winter lay up Did all of the usual checks befor setting off i.e oil, water ect after 30mins of cruising the engine cut out and wouldn,t restart, managed to moore up lifted the deckboards to take a look. to my horror the engine bay was full of what I thought was white smoke, it turned out to be steam the engine had overheated and spewed out most of its water. My first thoughts were cylinder head gone. I let the engine cool down and refilled it with warm water it took about 2 kettle fulls + about 3-4 pints of coolant to bring it up to level I then restarted the engine and it kicked in first time. I had about a hours run back to my Marina I took my time and left the deck boards up so that I could keep my eye on it. she ran fine and I rechecked the water levels on my return and everything was fine. The engine overheating light never came on (must check the bulb) what could have caused this? the same thing happened last year and all I did was replace the rad cap and it was fine for the season. Engine beta marine 3 cylinder 28hp. Any thoughts on this Thanks.

Kindle Fire was due for release in the uk last Jan, still hasn,t arrived. I got fed up waiting and went for the Nexus 7 tab

I find that it all depends on the number of people that are watching, no one about and its easy 5-10 watching its difficult any more and its almost impossible

800w genny at Aldi is it worth it http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_25515.htm?WT.mc_id=2012-07-06-17-51

wondering what are the advantages or disadvantages of a Vee bottom

Carried out a small service on my Beta BD1005 today. Oil change, oil filter change, air filter and fuel filter changed. All went well and was easy enough even for a novice like me. while waiting for the new oil to settle in to the sump I spent 10mins reading the mantainance manual to see what other things I may be able to do. To my surprise it recommends an oil change every 150hrs for the shallow sump version of my engine ( mine is) holding only 5-ltrs of oil. Now i,m thinking that 150 hrs isn,t that long and that if I were to do any serious cruising I would have to do a oil change every 4-6 weeks.Is this Normal????

Out at the marina in Stone to-day just to check that everything was ok after some of the heavy rain that we have had and saw that the Swallows are back and ducklings hatched So good to see them back

Iv,e got a old wet and dry vax that i find very handy also i keep a incense burner on the roof in the summer it keeps the midges away

The hull and the roof they help to keep the water out

Managed to get out to my boat today the batteries have been off charge and left standing for almost a week I tested them with a multi meter and got a reading of 14.4v from my starter battery and 12.5v & 12.8v on the two lesure batteries. A couple of the cells were a little on the low side and required topping up. I dont know if I should run them down and try again or get the charger checked out Am6

Not really sure how old the batteries are but at least 2 years. If appearance is anything to go by they look in good condition, I,m guessing that each cell took about an egg cup full of water to top up. I could hear them fizzing or bubbling during the charge they got warm but not hot. I rang the marine electrician that installed my charger he has told me to disconnect and seperate the batteries and he will pop out early next week and do a drop test on them. I do have a spare battery (new) but i,m arfaid to connect this just incase there is a fault with the charger I dont want to overcook the new one. Thank you all for your help I will let you know how I get on. Alan M6

Yes I mean volts AlanSorry about that

Wet cell batteries, Tony I topped them up last month it took about a litre to do all 3 batteries i haven.t got a hydrometer I guess thats my next buy.

Having recently fitted my new 25amp charger this one http://www.caravantechnology.com/Premium-Caravan-and-Leisure-25A-Charger-P112C15.aspx I was surprised that after 24hrs of charging that the LED light was still showing red and not green as it should have when batteries were fully charged.I tested the batteries using a multimeter. 1 starter read 12.75 amps and the 2 leisure batteries read 14.7 amps Knowing that I would be away from my boat for 4 or 5 days I thought it would be safer to leave the charger on in sleep mode, this I believe trickles 8 amps into the batteries. Returning to my boat today there was a very strong smell of acidy rotten eggs so I imeadiatley turned off the power to the charger. Ive googled (Batteries and bad egg smell) all of the info ive found tells me that this means that one or all of the batteries are in a dangerous state, beyond repair and libel to explode. So what do I do now, how do I identify the bad battery or does it mean that I have to buy 3 new batteries. Help Thanks AM6

I got this one from the same place http://www.caravantechnology.com/Premium-Caravan-and-Leisure-25A-Charger-P112.aspx wish I had gone for a 30amp they recomend that the amps of the charger should be at least 10% of the total amps of your batteries ie in my case 3x110 amp batteries = 330 amps therefor I should have at least a 30amp charger, is this equation correct? I have no idea about such things.

I got mine from here http://www.inbrass.co.uk/acatalog/Louvred_vents.html

New battery charger fitted to day this one http://www.caravantechnology.com/Premium-Caravan-and-Leisure-25A-Charger-P112C15.aspx it has a sleep mode function. can someone tell me what its for and how it should be used, no info in the installation instructions. Thanks for your help. AlanM6

Time to get the xmas booze in Starcoaster a few crates of ale stored on the high side should do it.

I am just about to replace my charger with this one http://www.caravantechnology.com/Premium-Caravan-and-Leisure-25A-Charger-P112C15.aspx my old charger stopped working for some reason. The new charger has 5 mode settings 1=for lead storage battery 2=for gel battery 3=sutible for recharging lead storage battery which is in good condition and completley disconnected from the devices it runs 4=for recovery of sulfated(aging) gel battery 5=for recovery of sulfated(aging)lead storage battery. given that my lead storage batteries are at least 2-3 years old am I correct in assuming that I should select mode 5 Thanks

We often see a cormorant between Stone & great haywood, I thought this was unusual but apperently not

Ah! Squacco heron thats a different kettle of fish

Still plenty of Herons on the T&M in the Stone area

Wonderfull post and pics really enjoyed it The pic of the guinness is now my desk top wallpaper Thanks